Turks and Caicos
Well, Turks and Caicos was not part of our original plan; nonetheless, we are definitely making the most of this unscheduled stop (in work and play)!
With 8 islands and a bunch of smaller cays, the Turks and Caicos 
Islands (TCI) are located on the southeastern tip of the Bahamian archipelago about 575 miles southeast of Miami and 100 miles north of Haiti. The name Caicos may have been derived from the Spanish word for ‘cay’ (cayos), and the name Turks is believed to come from the resemblance of an indigenous cactus’ red dome to a fez. Both Grand Turk and the Caicos islands are low altitude, scrub-covered limestone with huge coral reefs and striking turquoise water.
Our current port, Providenciales (Provo) is the most developed and populous island of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Local legend says that Providenciales was named in the mid-18th century by the survivors of a shipwrecked French boat called La Providencielle.
Provo’s residents are a combination of native islanders (called “Belongersâ€), American, European, and Canadian expats, Haitians, and Dominicans. Even with the diverse cultures, Provo is decidedly Americanized due to the development boom, increasing tourist industry, and rapid decline of other industries. Throughout our stay, we sought out native food, activity, and entertainment … to no avail. Though totally Americanized, Provo has no American fast food restaurants, which is quite refreshing.
Tourism is alive and well here as huge resorts and timeshare condominiums clutter the 
coastline. It is our understanding that TCI is the destination of the rich and famous (evidently home to a Keith Richards lair) and prices definitely reflect that. After experiencing a lot of what Provo has to offer, we probably would not recommend that you spend your hard earned dollars on the $850 average nightly room rate (with a 10 night mandatory minimum stay) at the big three resorts of Grace Bay Club, The Palms and Point Grace. Don’t get me wrong, the beaches are fantastic, and some of the resorts are very nice … but I get the sense that most tourist things here are at least 20% overpriced. From a value perspective, go to the Grand Wailea on Maui, or the Princeville Resort on Kauai … Hawaii may be a more crowded but a lot cheaper for comparable, or better, amenities.
When we were researching Turks and Caicos for trip planning purposes, we consulted Tripadvisor.com (we never leave home without doing so). Most of the reviews were positive but with two major complaints: prices (which I’ve already talked about) and mosquitoes. I expected the latter to be a bit silly or the kind of nitpicky complaint that some Tripadvisor.com users get so worked up about … I mean, really — it’s a tropical environment and there are gonna be some bugs. As it turns out, it’s a valid complaint — the mosquitoes are plentiful and unusually vicious!
Around 4:00 or 5:00 p.m., we usually head out on the frightening dirt road towards the super fancy Grace Bay. We’ve crashed just about all of the swanky resorts and since there’s really no such thing as the traditional “hotel lobby†here, we have peeked in the windows of ground floor rooms and condos to gauge how each swanky resort actually compares to the others (we think Point Grace might be the winner). Plus, we’ve been to almost every restaurant in Grace Bay, from the swanky restaurants at the “Big Three†resorts down to the Irish Pub (where not a single Notre Dame fan was available to be taunted by Andy during the Sugar Bowl), Bella Luna (a decent Italian restaurant with a highly coveted taleggio appetizer), and the very cute Barefoot Café located below the yoga studio.